Hammond Career Center principal is next superintendent

Hammond Area Career Center Principal Scott Miller is officially the city’s next school superintendent.

The Hammond School Board voted 4-1 to approve his contract on Tuesday night. Trustee Carlotta Blake-King was the lone opposition vote.

His hire drew loud cheers from the audience -- many who worked with him at the Career Center and came to show support.

“Your trust in me is not in vain,” Miller told the board. “I really look forward to working alongside you to just bring the best possible schools in Hammond that we can do.”

“That can’t just happen just from the superintendent,” he said. “It’s going to require all of us.”

Miller also praised the community.

“The one thing I love about Hammond is how much people love their Hammond schools,” he said. “Every one of us in the room has that in common. We love our Hammond schools and want to see it be the best possible schools for our kids.”

After the vote, he gathered the crowd -- mostly school employees -- into a large group picture.

Superintendent Walter Watkins will stay on until his retirement in June.

Miller, who has never been a school superintendent, was granted a five-year temporary superintendent license by the Indiana Department of Education on March 26, according to state records.

He has been the Career Center’s principal since 2016. He started as an information technology teacher there in 2000, he said. Miller also spent two years as Dean of Students at Lake Ridge New Tech Schools before returning to Hammond in 2016.

Before the vote, Blake-King, a new member, asked for his contract to be read out loud into public record.

Board President Deb White and school attorney Dan Friel both demurred because the public had been notified -- the contract had been posted on the district’s website and published in local newspapers.

There are folks that still could not have seen it; not everyone reads the newspaper anymore, Blake-King said.

Friel said it was “not necessary” for it to be read aloud at the meeting.

“I don’t think there’s any requirement for you to do so,” he said.

As Northwest Indiana’s biggest school district with more than 13,000 students, Hammond has about 20 schools, including a new Hammond High School under construction.

It faces an array of challenges both academic and financial. One of the biggest challenges Miller will face is on school closures. The district is looking to save $25.2 million from its budget.

Recently, the district was considering closing three schools, Columbia, Lafayette and Miller pre-K. The school board shelved a vote on closures last month.

It is now up to Miller to decide what to do. The next meeting on closures is expected in May.

Miller succeeds Watkins, who has worked for the School City of Hammond since 1977. A former Eggers Middle School teacher, Watkins became Hammond’s first black superintendent in 2003.

The school board spent a year going through three nationwide searches to choose Watkins’ successor.

Miller’s contract:

• 3-year contract paying $150,000 per year

• District pays 3% to state retirement fund

• $3,000 to professional dues and memberships

• $14,500 to his retirement annuity

• $500 monthly car allowance

• $300,000 life insurance policy

• 10 days of paid vacation

• $5,000 bonus each year Hammond raises its state grade — No bonus if grade drops.